Just putting it out there

Puts smashed avocado toast in a different light, doesn't it?


OOOOOOOOOOOOOO


Yeah. Like orchid is Greek for testicle. In doctorland a testicle is an orchid. Orchidectomy is removal of a testicle. The "bulbs" of an orchid plant do look a little like pedunculated testes.
 
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And then we have over 400 words in English that come from Nahuatl, the language of the Mexica (Aztec) and still a current language. Most are through the Spanish, and we're all familiar with aguahaca (avocado - which also means testicle, as noted above), tomatl (tomato), mole (sauce, as in guacamole - avocado sauce), and, of course, the elixir of the Mesoamerican gods and kings -xocolotl (chocolate). Many in my generation have met old man peyotl (peyote), but fewer are familiar with two words taken straight from the Nahuatl: the axolotl,a neotenic salamander endemic to the Valley of Mexico, and the atl-atl, a spear or dart - thrower.
 
In South Australia, I think there are still people who speak the German of their ancestors who arrived in the state in the 1850's as religious refugees after the schism in the Lutheran Church. There were certainly some in the 1970's. My grandfather was one. Modern German speakers laughed when they heard him. It was his first language, he knew no English until he went to school. During ww1 speaking German was very unpopular. All the communities with German names were renamed, except one. Hahndorf became Ambleside, Blumberg became Birdwood and so on. The place name that didn't change and was German was Adelaide, named after the German, morganatic wife of King William4. After the war many of the communities reverted to the German names. If war hadn't happened I suspect the state would now be bilingual. The German communities are very proud of their history and work ethic. Recently it was proposed to call the state Adelaide too because South Australia and Southern Australia are difficult for people to distinguish between.
 
Question: Why would a French grammarian be telling us what's correct in English?

Because he's a grammarian? Since he knew the English language, if he spoke in English to people not familiar with the language, he was educating to the end.
 
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